Yeah, to close an app completely, you still have to drag it from the top to the bottom, then hold it at the bottom until it flips over, and then release. But you should ideally just let Microsoft tombstone the app when it deems it necessary, since that's better, performance-wise.

Regarding Windows 8.1 Update 1, there's not much left to discover. A lot of the changes have been reported already, on this site even.

But one thing I found, that I hadn't seen covered before, is... File History now finally supports backing up your OneDrive folder!

i have not had much time to mess around with it since i installed it so to me so far all i have seen is the cosmetic stuff. and also if you are running Stardock MetroMix the (title Bar) for metro apps still appears at the top of the Screen rather than as part of the app.

Yeah, to close an app completely, you still have to drag it from the top to the bottom, then hold it at the bottom until it flips over, and then release. But you should ideally just let Microsoft tombstone the app when it deems it necessary, since that's better, performance-wise.

Skipping this update all together. It's a mess. <Snipped> Too many unwarranted changes. Whoever thought the taskbar should appear over metro apps should be fired and never allowed to work in GUI design again.

It's where Windows is headed, for better or worse. What are you going to do - stick to Windows 8.1.0 until support runs out?

This updates desktop, or rather, mouse oriented features put into metro, I think, are just a stop gap till next year and Windows 9. I expect that version, with the new menu and windowed store apps, will allow you to pick a version or a option that doesn't bring the desktop into metro for those who are fine with it as it is or is going to be with metro 2.0 on non-touch PCs.

Right now you can't pick, so to get users use to the start screen and store apps a bit better they're bringing over desktop UIs that users are familiar with till 9 where we'll have more choice.